The black Seats of Robinson and Cunningham blasted away side-by-side as the red lights went out, and it stayed that way for much of the opening lap. Wayne Gibson thrust the nose of the BMW E92 between them, but thought better of it as they rounded the Turn 1 banking. Gibson, in fact, had trouble holding on to third place, and during the second lap, both Edward Cockill's Seat and Tom Howard's BMW had got ahead.
Cunningham was in no mood to hang around, though, and in a haze of tyre smoke, dived down the inside of Robinson at the Deene Hairpin on lap two, and was into the lead. Gibson, fifth, was ahead of Chris Hart's Tracktorque Seat, which headed an internecine BMW skirmish; Robert Day had overtaken Mark Radcliffe, and Michael Symons had tagged onto the back of the battle. Within a lap, all three had dumped Hart's Spanish interloper down the order, but it wasn't without incident, a clash with Day's BMW displaying battle scars on the Seat. Radcliffe got his place back next time round, and Symons was taking no prisoners, disposing of Day, then trying a move on Radcliffe, on consecutive laps. Gibson was clearly struggling for grip, and ran wide at Tarzan, letting both Radcliffe and Symons through. Day was the next to take the ailing Gibson, the Intersport team now reporting a possible flat-spotted tyre for the E92's demise. It wasn't over yet though -- Symons got past Radcliffe at Deene, and Tom Howard's pursuit of Ed Cockill came good on lap 10. Phew !
What about the classes? Andy Thompson had seized the Class 3 lead, and the Toledo now headed Ian Lawson's BMW, whilst Luke Wright's Mini-Cooper was in front in Class 4. Dave Whitmore was making up ground in the red MGA Mazda MX5, and was closing in on Duncan Rogers' Mini Cooper, and there had been action in the Sportscar class too; erstwhile leader Guillaume Gruchet (Boxster) had been relieved of the lead by Mike Gorton's Mazda, and was now dicing with Chrissy Palmer's similar car."
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